High-speed flowing plasmas in the Earth＇s plasma sheet

A research topic of great interest to the space physics community is the observation of plasmas flowing at hundreds of kilometers per second in the Earth＇s plasma sheet. Although considerable effort has been made to understand the source of fast-flowing plasmas, many questions remain unanswered abou...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:中国科学通报：英文版 2011, Vol.56 (12), p.1182-1187
Main Author: FU SuiYan SHI QuanQi WANG Chi PARKS George ZHENG Ling ZHENG Hao SUN WeiJie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
地球
相互作用
磁层对流
科学问题
空间物理学
等离子体源
等离子体片
高速流动
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Summary:A research topic of great interest to the space physics community is the observation of plasmas flowing at hundreds of kilometers per second in the Earth＇s plasma sheet. Although considerable effort has been made to understand the source of fast-flowing plasmas, many questions remain unanswered about the mechanisms that produce high-speed flows and the effects they have on magnetospheric disturbances, especially their contributions to magnetospheric convection and substorms. In this paper, we discuss briefly the history of high-speed flows and review the proposed mechanisms, signatures of high-speed flows in auroras and their interaction with the background plasma. We then summarize the relationships between high-speed flows and magnetic structures, discuss questions associated with substorms, and finally pose several important scientific questions that need to be addressed.
ISSN:1001-6538
1861-9541